1. Wildland Fire Safety Office
Entrapment Avoidance
It’s your call!
Wildland Fire Safety Office
U. S. Forest Service
March 2002

2. Objectives Part 1 Decision-making
Describe the role that LCES has in the Risk Management Process.
Describe a protocol for negotiating an unsafe assignment.
Define Trigger Point and Levels of Engagement.
Given a set of fireline conditions, identify valid trigger point(s).

3. Objectives Part 2 Recognition
Describe a procedure for recognizing escape routes and safety zones when engaging a fire.
Given a set of fireline conditions, estimate minimum safety zone size.

4. Objectives Part 3 The Human Factor
Identify human factors that contribute to fireline decision errors.
Given a fire scenario, determine the appropriate level of engagement as conditions change.

5. Where do we start?
What skills do we use to avoid entrapment?

6. Escape & Safety
Concept of escape has been in the firefighting profession long before there were defined Rules of Engagement.
The really smart leader of firefighters has an escape and safety contingency plan in place before deciding to engage a fire!

7. Entrapment Avoidance
Part 1 Decision-making

8. Key Decision Points
Avoiding entrapment on the fireline is all about deciding when and where you engage the fire.
Accepting a new assignment and engaging the fire with planned suppression actions.
Continuing those suppression actions when there is a change in the fireground situation.
I need your crew to punch an indirect line down this ridge and through that saddle.

9. Risk Decision for Engaging a Fire
New Fireline Assignment
Decision Point
Engage fire with planned assignment
Negotiate assignment
Turn down assignment

10. Urban Wildland Watchouts
Rules of Engagement
Defined Rules of Engagement have been a part of firefighting doctrine since 1958.
For better or worse, firefighting has become more complex and so have the Rules of Engagement.
Risk Management
Fire Orders
LCES
Downhill Checklist
Urban Wildland Watchouts
Watchouts
Common Denominators

11. Risk Management
The Risk Management Process is simply a procedural approach to using the Rules of Engagement that you already know.
This process provides the criteria to support your decision-making on the fireline.

12. What about LCES? Is LCES all you need to know?
How does LCES relate to the Fire Orders?
What role does LCES have in the Risk Management Process?

13. Right to know?
Federal law says all workers have the right to know about the hazardous materials they work around…what questions do all firefighters have the right to know the answers to?

14. Is there legitimate dissent?
Do leaders have a responsibility to protect their firefighters from unnecessary risk?
Have you ever been given a fire assignment that you thought was unsafe or excessively risky?
How did you resolve that situation?

15. Risk Decision for Changing Situations
New Fireline Assignment
Decision Point
Engage fire with planned assignment
Negotiate assignment
Turn down assignment
Lookout
observation
Situation Change = Trigger Point?
Decision Point
Communication
Continue full engagement
Hold in place
Change tactics
Disengage and retreat

16. Situation Change = Trigger Point?
Trigger Points
A pre-identified or anticipated event (time, place, or condition) that, when it occurs, initiates a pre-planned response.
Hitting a Trigger Point means stop, evaluate the situation, and make a decision.
Step 5 - Evaluate of the Risk Management Process.
Situation Change = Trigger Point?
Decision Point

17. Trigger Points are Anticipated
Ask yourself “What changing factor(s) can affect our mission success and safety today?”
Trends in weather?
Changes in fuel type and terrrain?
Tactical progress?
Logistical support?

18. Trigger Point examples?
Fire Environment
Fire Operations

19. Are all Trigger Points created equal?
Trigger Points will vary by geographic area and fuel type…what things should you do on a fire so you are able to identify valid Trigger Points?

20. EXERCISE: Using Trigger Points
Establish Trigger Point(s) when potential exists for your fire situation to degrade.
Insure that your situation awareness includes monitoring factors that relate to the Trigger Point(s) you set.
Have a planned response in place for your actions when a Trigger Point is hit.
Do not ignore a Trigger Point that has been hit!
“Trigger Point” exercise

21. EXERCISE: Using Trigger Points
Your Assignment
It is August 23rd and you have been dispatched as the initial attack Incident Commander for the Davis Fire.
The fire is located in the Northern Rocky Mountains in Montana
You have a hotshot crew and two Type 3 engines assigned to you.

22. EXERCISE: Using Trigger Points
Local Factors
Fires you have worked here in Montana over the last couple of weeks have burned quite actively after 1400.
Todays weather forecast:
Max Temp near 90º
Min RH 18-20%
NW winds to 15 mph

23. EXERCISE: Using Trigger Points
Fire Situation
You have arrived at the fire and have a safe anchor point to work from.
The fire is about 3 acres.
The fire currently has a moderate rate of spread in surface fuels.
Time is 1030.

24. What are your Trigger Point(s)?
EXERCISE: Using Trigger Points
What are your Trigger Point(s)?

25. EXERCISE: Using Trigger Points
One possible answer!

26. Situation Change = Trigger Point?
Levels of Engagement
What do you do when a Trigger Point is hit:
Validate continuing with full engagement of the fire…or
Implement your pre-planned response.
Contingency plan Plan B
Situation Change = Trigger Point?
Decision Point
Continue full engagement
Hold in place
Change tactics
Disengage and retreat

27. Hold in Place Stop advancing or pull back a short distance.
Buys time to re-assess.
Fireline can be improved.
Troops can regroup.
Escape time can be shortened.
Allows for faster re-engagement.
Let’s hold up here. If the wind switches back, we’ll go after it again.

28. I think we need to move back under it and go direct.
Change Tactics
Disengage from the fire, change tactics, and re-engage the fire.
Line location can be improved.
Hazardous areas can be avoided.
Direct versus indirect line can be considered.
Negotiate changes within the chain of command.
I think we need to move back under it and go direct.

29. Reverse tool order and move back to the safety zone now!
Disengage & Retreat
Reverse tool order and move back to the safety zone now!
Move directly to a safety zone.
Immediate and full activation of all components in the LCES system.
Extreme situations may require crews to drop gear in order to move faster.

30. Leader’s responsibilities?
What responsibilities do leaders have when they initiate a change in the level of engagement on a fire?

31. Entrapment Avoidance
Part 2 Recognition

32. Escape Route & Safety Zone Recognition
We have been talking about decision-making:
When to engage the fire?
When to disengage?
How do we recognize effective escape routes and safety zones so we can make those decisions?

33. A Process to Use Observe the area Visualize fire spread
Identify valid safety zones
Time the escape
Inform others
Evaluate conditions

34. Observe
Personally observe potential safety zones and escape routes in the work area.
Step 1 – Situation Awareness of the Risk Management Process.

35. Visualize
Build a mental picture of the fire behavior you would expect if conditions existed that would enable a crown fire to burn around your potential safety zone.
Anticipate flamelengths.
Anticipate convective influences.

36. Identify
Compare the fire behavior you visualize with the size and location of potential safety zones you observe in order to identify any true safety zones available.
We will look at safety zone selection in more detail.

37. Time
Have someone walk and time the route from the work location to the potential safety zone(s).
We will look at escape time in more detail.

38. Inform
Communicate the location and path of travel to those who work for you and around you.
Flag or otherwise mark if the escape route or safety zone is not obvious.

39. Evaluate
You must continually evaluate your escape and safety plan to insure that it will still work.
Time of day and fire intensity changes.
Tactical progress and travel distance changes.
Step 5 - Evaluate of the Risk Management Process.

40. What is a Safety Zone?
What are the requirements for an effective safety zone?

41. Do you know where your Zone is?
What are the three primary types of safety zones? Discuss some examples and advantages/disadvantages of each.

42. Location, Location, Location
Heavy fuels?
Downwind?
Above the fire, in a chimney, or in a saddle? OR
Fine fuels and burnout?
Flank of the fire?
Lowest ground?

43. Radiant vs. Convective Heat?
Convective influences can push lethal heat to surprising distances and increase safety zone size requirements…what are these influences?

44. EXERCISE: Estimating Safety Zone Size
This model was developed by the Missoula Fire Lab.
This model considers the heat impact from RADIANT HEAT only…thus it provides a tool to estimate MINIMUM safety zone size.
“Safety Zone Size” exercise

45. EXERCISE: Estimating Safety Zone Size
Your Assignment
It is October 3rd and your 20 person crew has been working on the 3000 acre Madre Fire for two days.
The fire is located in the Coast Range of Southern California.
Your crew is one of four handcrews assigned to the Division C.

46. Local Factors The fire is burning in chaparral about 10’ tall.
EXERCISE: Estimating Safety Zone Size
Local Factors
The fire is burning in chaparral about 10’ tall.
For the last two days you have observed 20’ flame heights on upslope runs during the peak of the burning period.
It is 0700, conditions are the same today and you are anticipating the same level of fire behavior.

47. EXERCISE: Estimating Safety Zone Size
Fire Situation
The four crews in Division C are to construct indirect handline up a ridge to tie into a dozer line on top.
The fire edge has not yet become established in the drainage adjacent to the proposed line location.
You anticipate the fire will continue to make hooking upslope runs with the normal diurnal winds predicted for today.

48. EXERCISE: Estimating Safety Zone Size
Proposed Safety Zone
You are at the anchor point which is an area at the base of the ridge that has been cleared by a dozer.
The cleared area is flat and about 200 feet wide by about 300 feet long.
Brush surrounds the cleared area on all sides.

49. Will it work for a Safety Zone?
EXERCISE: Estimating Safety Zone Size
Will it work for a Safety Zone?

50. EXERCISE: Estimating Safety Zone Size
Let’s Do the Math!
Using the Missoula Fire Lab model on page 7 in the Incident Response Pocket Guide you calculate that:

51. It’s Never Black and White!
EXERCISE: Estimating Safety Zone Size
It’s Never Black and White!
This is only an exercise to get you to think about safety zone criteria. Everyone painted a different mental picture of this situation based on their experience. But you all should have considered the following:

52. What is an Escape Route?
What are the requirements for an effective escape route?

53. How far is it, anyway?
How do you calculate escape time?

54. Uphill Escape Routes Avoid steep uphill escape routes.
Firefighter travel rates are significantly slower.
Remember the smart firefighter knows that fire goes faster uphill and people go slower!

55. Safety Margin
Your Safety Margin is simply the time you estimate it will take the fire to spread to your location….minus your known escape time.
This number needs to be a positive number!

56. Safety Margin Paradox
Firefighter escape time will increase during the burning period (fireline progress and fatigue)
Fire rate of spread will increase during the burning period (typically warmer, drier, windier).
Safety Margin will decrease!

57. Safety margin minimum?
How far away from my safety zone can I be and still have a positive safety margin?

58. Adjusting LCES
When safety margins shrink below 5 minutes, it should be considered a standard Trigger Point.
Conditions on fires seldom remain constant, you may need to adjust any or all parts of your LCES system several times during a shift to reflect changing conditions.

59. Entrapment Avoidance
Part 3 The Human Factor

60. Escape and Safety Decision Paths
Lookout
observation
Situation Change = Trigger Point?
Decision Point
Communication
Continue full engagement
Hold in place
Change tactics
Disengage and retreat
Safety Zone
Life is good
Normal
Escape
Inadequate Safety Zone
Deploy fire shelter
Normal
Escape
Safety zone size estimation error ?
Select a Deployment Site
Last resort survival
No Escape
Route in Place
Failure to establish LCES
Select a Deployment Site
Last resort survival
Escape
Cut Off ?
Lookout observation error
Communication of disengagement alarm error
Escape time estimation error

61. Fires Don’t Kill Firefighters
Firefighter decision errors kill firefighters…so we’re back to decision-making!
As you have just seen 4 things can happen when you have to implement your escape and safety plan…3 of them are bad.
Your decision-making and communication skills as a leader will determine the outcome.

62. Entrapments = Decision Errors
Where do entrapments most frequently occur?
Who is most frequently involved?
When do entrapments typically happen?
Why do entrapments happen?

63. Practice Scenarios Tactical Decision Game – Alaska
Video Case Study – Colorado

64. Field Drills
Establish and practice your crew’s standard operating procedure for disengage and retreat.
Practice field recognition of viable safety zones.
Use a watch to time uphill and downhill travel rates.
Estimate slope percentage and check with a clinometer.
Estimate flame heights and use a watch to time fire runs.

65. The Bottom Line
This training session was an opportunity for each of us to assess how we approach firefighter safety and a forum to learn from others.
No rules, standards, policies, or checklists will ensure your safety on the fireline.
Maintaining awareness of your situation and using fundamental firefighting methods are the foundation for safe and effective fireline operations.